


Hidden Shards

by Elenhin



Category: The Almighty Johnsons
Genre: Gen, shards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-22
Updated: 2013-11-22
Packaged: 2018-01-02 08:25:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1054621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenhin/pseuds/Elenhin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A continuation of the elaboration of Shards from the One Word at a Time series by Aramirandme81. A specific sequel to Shards, since we got started on the line of thought that Anders was forced to admit to Dawn what had happened. </p>
<p>Valerie once smashed a wineglass in his face, something Anders hid for the sake of his younger siblings, but now he can no longer hide the truth. </p>
<p>It is probably best to have read 'Shards' first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hidden Shards

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aramirandme81](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aramirandme81/gifts).



> For Aramirandme81, for always encouraging me and being so kind to me, I hope you like this. *hugs* Elenhin

Hidden Shards

 

Dawn frowns and looks up as she hears Anders give a quiet hiss of discomfort. Where her desk is situated she can not see him, but she has heard him hissing and wincing on occasion for several days now. The thing with Anders is that if nothing is wrong, he will try to evoke your sympathy. If something is wrong, he’ll hide it so you’ll never know.

 

She has learned to look out for those small signs for that very reason. There are generally three levels of it.

  
When Anders is loudly complaining, then nothing is wrong and you need not concern yourself.

 

When you see the small signs, winces, limps, light and sound sensitivity, then you need to try and find out what is wrong.

 

If there has been small signs, and Anders finally admit that he’s feeling ‘a bit off,’ ‘a little unwell’ or even ‘sick.’ Then you need to take him to a doctor as quickly as possible. At that time it’s also a good idea to go over the list of possible donors for hearts, lungs, kidneys and other vital organs.

 

Now she gets up, taking a coffee mug and proceeds to start a mug of espresso. “Anders, do you have a headache?” she asks and he looks up surprised.

 

“What, no? Why would you think that?” he frowns confused.

 

“You have looked better, here,” she puts the coffee mug in front of him and he inhales the aroma with sigh of pure bliss.

 

“Thanks Dawn,” when he looks up at her she can tell his eyes are irritated, or rather, one of them are. The other appears fine, but one eye is bloodshot and watery.

 

“What’s wrong with your eye?” she frowns, looking closer.

 

“Speck of dust or something,” he shrugs. “Getting a bit annoying, but it’s no more than that.”

 

“Try rinsing it out with some water,” she suggests. “How long has it been bothering you?”

 

“Dunno, a couple of days off and on,” he shrugs.

 

“Then you have to do something about it, you could get an eye infection.” This is exactly what she was worried about. At least exactly the type of thing, it’s so typical of Anders and so infuriating.

 

“I’ll be right back,” she states as she picks up her purse and heads for the door.

 

“Eh, okay,” Anders does not even ask where she’s going. If it has been bothering him for days, they really need to do something about it. So heading to the drugstore she picks up a bottle of distilled eye water. It’s not in any way contaminated like tap water can be and won’t sting as much.

 

When she gets back and Anders sees the bottle though he pulls back.

 

“What are you gonna do with that?” he demands.

 

“We have to do something,” she points out. “Your eye is all red and irritated, and if we don’t get rid of whatever it is you’ll have an eye infection for sure.”

 

“I don’t like anyone being near my eyes Dawn,” he bites his lip. “It makes me nervous.”

 

“I’ll be very careful, but if you get a real eye infection, it won’t be any better,” she reminds him.

 

“I guess not,” he sighs. “Fine, but I really don’t like anyone messing near my eyes.”

 

“And I’ll be as careful as I can,” she promises. “I’ll just fetch a towel, why don’t you stretch out on the couch and this will be easier.”

 

Anders nods slowly, laying down on his back on the couch. Dawn fetches a towel and holds it to the side of his face. “I know it’s not really comfortable, but we have to do this,” she soothes as she can sense him stiffening.

 

Anders steels himself, and bites his lip when she pours water in his eye. It is very uncomfortable in general terms, but does serve to sooth the stinging.

 

“There, that should do it,” Dawn puts aside the empty bottle and dabs at his face with the towel.

 

“Thanks,” sitting up he blinks a few times. At the moment he feels better, the stinging sensation is gone, but after just a few hours it’s back and Dawn frowns.

 

“Is it still bothering you?”

 

“Must be because it was in there so long,” he shrugs.

 

“It’s possible,” she agrees, but the next morning it looks even worse. She frowns as soon as she sees him and points to the couch.

 

“I need  to see if I can get it out Anders,” she states firmly when it looks like he’s about to object.

 

“Honestly it’s fine Dawn,” Anders rubs at his eye with a small wince and Dawn gasps.

 

“Anders, stop!” she snatches his hand away. At the corner of his eye a small drop of blood is forming under the eyelid. “You’re bleeding.”

 

“What?” he touches his finger to it, then frowns and swallows as he sees the blood on his fingertip. “Fuck!” he goes slightly pale which Dawn knows isn’t a good sign.

 

“Come on Anders, we’re going to the doctor, that is not good,” she states firmly, taking his arm when he’s slow to follow. She leads him to her car, making him get in and making sure he uses the seat belt.

 

“Maybe it’s nothing,” Anders tries.

 

“Maybe it’s something,” she shoots back. “You are bleeding from your eye Anders, there is no way that is good.”

 

“I guess not,” with a small sigh he leans back and surrenders.

 

It takes a couple of hours before a doctor can see him, and Dawn follows. Anders does not voice any objection to her being along and she knows he really prefers not being alone. He’s stiff and tense when the doctor shines the light into his eye, frowning as he pulls back the eyelid. There are dried stains of blood on his cheek and around his eye and Dawn finds it very disturbing.

 

It’s the X-ray that reveals a few tiny specks of something but Dawn can’t tell what it is when she’s looking at them. Anders is still quite pale, but she can’t blame him for that.

 

“This is the problem, some foreign particles,” the doctor points to the specks. “I think we can remove them quite easily though. We will not even have to really admit you. We can take care of it right away.”

 

Anders nodded mutely, he had a sinking feeling that he knew what it was. It could really only be one thing.

 

Two hours later it was confirmed when he and Dawn looked at four tiny glistening fragments.

 

“What is that?” Dawn frowned. They had taped a gauze bandage over his eye, and told Dawn how to make sure it was kept clean and how to change the bandage. Anders was exhausted and a little sluggish but it was he who answered.

 

“Glass, from a wineglass.”

 

“How did you get bits of glass in your eye?” Dawn blinked confused. Anders had a few times, that she knew off, been hurt when he was out drinking. She had however never heard of him getting glass in his face.

 

“Becuase someone smashed a broken wine glass in my face,” he sighed.

 

“Were you drunk?” she hated it, but she had to ask. She hated it even more when he looked sad and hurt though.

 

“No, I was just a fucking kid at the time,” he muttered. “But I figured everyone would assume I was drunk. It’s the way of things, isn’t it?” he wrapped his arms around himself. Suddenly he felt cold.

 

“I’m sorry Anders,” she bit her lip and dropped her hand to his shoulder. “What happened?”

 

“You know Valerie,” he started slowly and she nodded. “We never got along, fuck, that’s the understatement of the year. She wanted to control me, force me to do what she wanted, and I didn’t much care for that. We argued all the time, I don’t even remember about what exactly, but she was pissed and I was too. She broke a wineglass, slamming it down, and, then she smashed it into my face,” he finished in a whisper.

 

“Jesus,” she lifted her hand to her mouth. “That’s, that’s awful Anders.”

 

“Having the glass removed, and them telling me how near I came to losing my eye,” he had to swallow as the memory made him feel physically ill. “That was the awful part.”

 

“What did Mike say?” she wanted to hold him, comfort him, but she did not know how and Anders snorted.

 

“Mike gave me house arrest for a week for fighting, and Val couldn’t even ask him not to.”

 

“You didn’t tell Mike?” she frowned confused. “After what she did?”

 

“No,” he dropped his head, he felt weak and disgusted with himself. “She got to me just before I saw the doctor. Told me if I told them what had happened they’d take Ty and Axl out of there. They would wind up in foster care and she said it would be all my fault, and I believed her. I was a fucking mess, couldn’t even think, and I believed her and I couldn’t do that to them, so I lied and said I’d got into a fight. That I didn’t remember exactly what happened. Guess I was good at lying, cause they sure bought it.”

 

“Oh Anders,” she sighs. “She shouldn’t have done that to you.”

 

“No, they wouldn’t have taken Ty or Axl away for it, but Mike would’ve been pissed cause they would have asked questions. I didn’t know shit about that though, I just kept seeing them taking Ty and Axl and it all being my fault. Mike would’ve hated me, they would all have hated me, even more than they do. So I wasn’t gonna do that. But I didn’t know they missed pieces of the glass, I thought it was all gone,” he felt sick again realizing it had been there all this time.

 

“And one of them was shifting, working into your eye,” Dawn felt nauseas.

 

“Please don’t talk about that,” Anders pleaded, even more pale now. “I can go home now right?” he added.

 

“Yes, I’ll take you,” she nodded. “But if you think you can manage I want to go past my place first and pick some things up. The doctor wanted you to have someone with you remember, so I’m staying the night with you.”

 

“You don’t have to do that,” he grabbed his shirt and started pulling it back on, very eager to go home. “They always say that, it’s not a big deal. I just go home and it’s fine.”

 

“No Anders,” she stated, her voice sharp. “You might do that, but you’re not supposed to, and you won’t. Not this time, I’m going with you.”

 

“It’s fine Dawn, honest,” he tried, amazed that she would be so firm on the subject.

 

“No Anders, you’re supposed to have someone with you, and you will, and that’s final,” she helped him with his jacket, furious with whoever had made him think it was okay for him to be alone when he shouldn’t.

 

“You really mean that?” Anders looked confused as he made to stand.

 

“Yes Anders, I mean that,” she confirmed.

 

“Oh, in that case, would it be alright if I stayed at your place?” he asked quietly. “I don’t have a guest room Dawn, I only got the couch, and right now I’d rather sleep on a bed.”

 

“I’ll take the couch Anders, I imagine you’d be more comfortable in your own home?” she suggested.

 

“No, that’s fine, but I couldn’t rest if you were on the couch, please Dawn?” he pleaded and she couldn’t deny him.

 

“I’ll take you past your flat then so you can grab some clothes, then we’ll head to my place,” she decided. “And tomorrow we’re gonna tell Mike, he needs to know Anders,” she added. “This could have been serious, he needs to know.”

 

“No he doesn’t,” Anders shook his head. “Valerie is out of the picture now.”

 

“But you’re not, and this concerns you very much, and Mike needs to know,” she insisted, leading him out of the hospital.

 

She wound up going up to his flat to get his clothes while he waited in the car, and she wound up helping him get ready for bed. She hoped she could also make him talk to Mike, becuase the way she saw it, his brother really needed to know.

 

It was all she could do not to wonder what more damage had been done to him when he was young? What more lay hidden under layers of clothes, and even skin?

  
The End

 

Please comment, the Cricket is hungry, and still enourages everyone to read One Word  at a Time by Aramirandme81


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